Wigan Album

Thanks, Aitch, for putting this on. We used to love May Queens; why do you never see them now? We used to meet in somebody's backyard for weeks beforehand, planning our costumes and our route, and on the great day we sallied forth through the streets with our Queen resplendent in her Mam's net curtain and a crown made out of a cornflakes box, shaking our collecting tins..."Please help the May Queen"! Then we'd have a picnic on the back field with jam butties and pop...oh, happy days! Keep these pics coming, Aitch, they are much appreciated.

This was taken on Greenfield Avenue around the early eighties. The lady looking over the garden fence was Alice Whittle. The children were Amanda Gardner, Julie Potts, Angela Potts (the May Queen), Susan Potts, Christine Potts, Annmarie Ellison, Julie Ellison, James Ellison, Jill Whittle, William Coulton and Jayne Packingham. Sorry I can't remember the name of the girl with the red hair but she lived on Ince Green Lane near Maureen's shop.

It's a good question why we don't see things like this anymore. My answer would be because we have lost that community spirit, through whatever reason probably many factors like people are too distracted with other trivial matters and have become far too absorbed in consumerism and materialism. I think people have been conditioned not to like their neighbours and interact with them, the massively overblown hysteria regarding crime, terrorism, etc has made people not to trust each other. Also people feel they don't have the time through long work hrs. Sad we've lost that spirit.